How did Mercedes boss Toto Wolff become a billionaire despite the team's recent struggles?

It was recently reported that Mercedes team principal and CEO Toto Wolff has become the latest billionaire in the world of sports. The Austrian, aside from being the team boss of the former world champions, also owns one-third of the company.

Wolff joined the German team at the beginning of the 2013 season and became its joint team boss in 2014. Under his leadership, Mercedes have become one of the most dominant teams in F1 history, winning eight consecutive constructors championships along with seven driver's titles from 2014-2021.

However, since 2022, they have struggled to match the performances of leaders and rivals Red Bull and have slumped to third. Their on-track performance has not made a dent in Wolff's net worth.

Before entering F1, Wolff was an investment banker and founded his own venture capital firm, Marchfifteen, in 1998, which was followed by Marchsixteen in 2004. These firms were incredibly successful and diversified before the 2008 recession so were not hit too hard by this.

In early 2002, he joined former two-time world champion Mika Hakkinen to manage emerging racing drivers, one of them being Valtteri Bottas. He currently has a stake in both Mercedes and Aston Martin.

“He's involved in the long-term strategy of the team" - Mercedes team boss on James Allison

Toto Wolff confirmed that James Allison is not working trackside with them but is very involved in the long-term strategy of the team.

Speaking to Autosport, he said:

“No, he's not really involved. He's involved in the long-term strategy of the team. But he's doing more activities like America's Cup. James, for sure, as a technical director in the past, has a big record and is a people person. He's somebody that is still very important for the organization.”

He added:

“People like Aldo, you can never replace. But you need to find within the structure, you divide the job among a few others. Aldo [was] very good in structuring his succession also - it's not something that happened from one day to the other. We've had basically two and a half years of advanced warning that he would go. He shaped the department in his sense.”

It will be interesting to see if Mercedes F1 can make the necessary changes and compete at the front of the grid more regularly in the upcoming races and even challenge Red Bull for race wins and pole positions.